Georgetown University
ANTH 280-10
Summer 2013
Urban Anthropology: Culture of the City
Mondays through Fridays
Dr. Laurie King
::
lek28@georgetown.edu
“The city is the maximal expression of the human need – and capacity – for
interdependence.” -- Ulf Hannerz
“Cities are problems in organized complexity.” – Jane Jacobs
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course explores the city as a product of, and a
rich site for, humans’ negotiations over social and economic rights, identity,
cultural meaning, and community. Drawing on a variety of historical,
geographic, and ethnographic studies, we will ask whether urban life is
qualitatively distinct from rural life. The city is a site of economic and political
centralization, but also a landscape of sentiment and memory. It is a space of
ritual observance and spectacle, as well as the location of suffering and
dysfunction. Debates over urban planning encompass moral, cultural, and
personal concerns, not simply the designs of economists, policymakers, and
architects. Throughout the course, methodological questions regarding the city
as an object of historical and ethnographic study are highlighted. We will look at
ancient Rome, Tokyo’s markets, mid-20th century New York City, contemporary
Washington, DC and Los Angeles, the emergence of “non-places,” and the
wounded cities of New Orleans, Sarajevo, and Beirut in order to understand the
complexity of the urban experience through a holistic and critical
anthropological lens.
Texts (in alphabetical order)
Auge, Marc. 1995. Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity.
Davis, Mike. 2006. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (New
Edition),
Gmelch, George, Robert V. Kemper, Walter P. Zenner. 2010. Urban Life:
Readings in the Anthropology of the City,
Hannerz, Ulf. 1980. Exploring the City.
Jacobs, Jane. 1992. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Steinberg, Phil, and Rob Shields. 2008. What Is a City?: Rethinking the Urban
after Hurricane Katrina.
All texts will be available on reserve at the Lauinger Library
On Blackboard:
Blom Hansen, Thomas and Oskar Verkaaik, “Urban Charisma: On
Everyday Mythologies in the City.”
Krieger, P. “Aesthetics and Anthropology of Megacities: A New Field of Art
Historical Research” http://actesbranly.revues.org/318#text
Pickett, Cadenasso, et al., “Urban Ecological Systems: Linking Terrestrial,
Ecological, Physical, and Socioeconomic, Components of Metropolitan Areas.”
Selected readings on “wounded cities.”
Readings from Virtual Issue on Cosmopolitics
http://www.culanth.org/?q=node/375
COURSE EVALUATION:
2 short essays (3-4 pages) 20 points each
1 long essay (6-7 pages)
In-class presentation *
Attendance and active participation
2
40%
30 %
10%
20%
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week One :: June 3-7
Monday:
Mapping the City: Discussion of maps and their various meanings and
implications.
Tuesday and Wednesday:
Pickett, Cadenasso, et al., “Urban Ecological Systems: Linking Terrestrial,
Ecological, Physical, and Socioeconomic, Components of Metropolitan
Areas” (Blackboard)
Krieger, P. “Aesthetics and Anthropology of Megacities: A New Field of Art
Historical Research” http://actesbranly.revues.org/318#text (Blackboard)
Chapters 1 and 2 in Urban Life
In-class mapping exercise on Wednesday
Thursday:
Chapters 4, 6, and 7 in Urban Life
Friday:
Chapters 1 and 3 in Exploring the City.
Week Two :: June 10 -- 14
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday:
Chapters 4 (pp. 119-135 only), 5, 7, and Appendix: Analytical Concepts, in
Exploring the City
Chapters 8, 9, 10, 12, and 17 in Urban Life.
Thursday and Friday:
Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Parts I and II (Chapters
1-12). *
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* Given the extent of the readings and the telsecoping of one semester into five weeks, we will
establish an academic "division of labor" whereby students will be assigned specific readings from
these texts to present to the class. Students will help lead discussions of their assigned readings.
First Essay Assignment Due on Friday June 14th
Week Three :: June 17 -- 21
Monday and Tuesday:
Auge, Nonplaces: An Introduction to Supermodernity (entire).
Wednesday:
Film: “Chinatown”
Thursday and Friday:
Davis, City of Quartz (entire)*
Week Four :: June 24 -- 28
Monday and Tuesday:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Parts III and IV (Chapters 1322). *
Wednesday:
Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 in Urban Life
Thursday and Friday:
What Is a City?: Rethinking the Urban after Hurricane Katrina (entire);
selected readings on “wounded cities” (Beirut, Sarajevo, Port au Prince).
Second Essay Assignment Due on Friday June 28th
Week Five :: July 1 -- 5
Monday and Tuesday:
Field research tours of selected neighborhoods in Washington, DC
Wednesday:
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In-class mapping and discussion based on fieldwork
Thursday:
NO CLASS: Independence Day.
Friday:
Putting it all together: How do you now see and define “the city”?
Third Essay Due on July 8th
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